[Polaris playtest] My god, it's full of stars... [LONG]

[Christopher Weeks]

We played our second session last night.  We played through five scenes but I only have the notes for the first three.  Maybe Aaron will mail them to me or maybe he'll just post them here later.  We did hit some stumbling blocks.  I'm just going to post the first scene because it's long and I have stuff to do.  But I'll be back.

Scene 5
I wanted to rev up the engine and see if anything sounded wrong -- we are playtesting, after all.  So I framed our first scene with all four of our protagonists present at a banquet held by Lord Lesath, celebrating the return of Lady Antares.  It is immediately obvious to Lord Megrez that Antares is a fallen knight and a demon.  With disgust at the merry-making, he stands and calls her out as a demon.

We all sat in the same configuration.  Larry's my Mistaken, Duck is my New Moon and Aaron is my Full Moon.  Larry responds to my calling out with "All the Knights present turn against Lord Megrez."
...You ask far too much and I exhaust my office Theme.
......"The knights murmer in disbelief."
.........And so it came to pass.

Lord Megrez asks the room if he is really the only one who can see her for what she truly is.

Sargus examines Antares for reaction.  She's pale and astounded but appears to be sincere in her surprise.

"Is her glamor so strong?  Can't any of you see beneath to her worm-ridden flesh?"

Sir Arcturus, Larry -- my Mistaken's Knight, rises and shouts "This is an outrage." but is shouted down by Sargus' "Let him speak!"

"There must be a trial of some kind, if none of you see what I see.  She cannot be allowed a place in our sanctum as a demon, but I see that you cannot see what I see."

Lord Wezn, Antares' sister rises and publicly support the idea of a trial, "I have seen things that make me question my sister's status."

<We ended up having a discussion about the control of the protagonists and the role of the Moons during narration and conflict.  I don't think we resolved it to a degree that felt at all official, so I'd like to hear what Ben thinks.  I think we decided that Aaron and Duck had some level of veto power over what happened to their Knights and that they could speak whatever they wanted, but that the Heart and the Mistaken had some level of veto power over what happened in the scene...OK, I don't remember what we decided exactly.  Anyway, how's it supposed to work in a scene with multiple protagonists?>

Lord Pupis -- Sargus' possessed father, rises and claims Megrez' accusation to be an outrage.  He calls for Megrez' exile and the order does exile the Knight.
...But only if in the process of exiling Megrez, the involved Knights are granted his vision and see the demons in Lord Pupis and Lady Antares.
......You ask far too much. And Larry burns his side of my Ability Theme based on Megrez' ability to see hidden demons.
.........the knights who still have Zeal are granted clear vision
.............But it was not meant to be. (Which backs us up to before the exile.  This was, I think, our first use of that key phrase.)

In response to Pupis rising and calling him out, Megrez advances on him, drawing his sword, and announcing to the room that Pupis too is possessed and that further, everyone already knows it.  Megrez then cleaves the demon's head in twain.
...But only if Elgrove (the demon) then possesses Lord Megrez.
......And so it came to pass. (Which I think is pretty cool.)

I have a question about this next bit.  How does anyone (our group, Ben, etc.) feel about interruption?  Larry narrates all the female Knights jumping to there feet...(and I think they're going to kill or arest Megrez) and I just barge in with "'There's your target ladies (pointing to Antares), get her.' and they do."  Larry just rolled with it...sort of.
...But only if Lord Megrez' genitals blacken and grow to two foot diameter.
<This was followed by a long pause on my part and a short discussion about how to handle stupid entries into the SIS and whether there was anything in the written system to deal with it.>
......But only if the effect is extremely temporary and no one knows about it.
.........But it was not meant to be. (which again, strikes it from the record.)  Instead he responds to my interruption (which again, may have been the real problem..?)
...But only if the demon uses her power to turn the attacking Knights into demon thralls and they kill all the knights present (sans protagonists).

<We had a discussion here about what my phrasing "get her" means.  We seemed to decide it was accepted as "kill her.">

......It shall not come to pass.  (I have to roll a one to get it my way and we're all assuming that I'll lose and Larry's doomsday will come to pass.  But then I make the roll!  A one shows it's beady little eye and we're all like "Whoa!"  And it did not come to pass!  It's really worth noting that there was this whole escalating tension thing talking about the narration and the outcome and the crappy probability and then this huge release.  We were all highly invested.  You know, a one in six isn't that uncommon, but it sure seemed remote when we were all thinking about it.  Aaron noted that this was a display that randomness really does create suspense.)

So Lady Antares is restrained and nothing demonic happens.  (I was expecting her to get waxed as per our earlier conversation.  I'm not sure what I was missing, but it appears that I'm the only one who thought that was the inevitable outcome, so I rolled with it -- and anyway, it's all good.)

Megrez had a pending experience roll and scored a refresh.  Ben, the rules seem like they're saying to make the roll right when whichever trigger is pulled.  I like that, but our group came to the conclusion that we'd wait until the end of the scene for purposes of flow and continuity.  Thoughts?

And so it was.

[Larry L.]

The, um, black genitals bit was my unfortunate knee-jerk attempt to fight back and create a narration that would be totally unacceptable to Chris. We came to the conclusion that I could just keep adding silly stuff (Dumbo ears, whatever) and Chris could effectively negate them with minimal effort. Is there some provision in the system for striking such stupid stuff (Moons?) or is this strictly left to the sensibilities of the players?

We never really did settle the question of how the rule that you can veto stuff that "affects" your protagonists works out. I actually rather enjoyed it last session when we weren't using that rule and Chris was putting words in my protagonist's mouth, because it created an enjoyable conflict. Also, this seemed to give the Moons a kind of power to do things outside the conflict resolution system. They didn't really have to make their
appeal to the Heart or the Mistaken for things involving their own protagonists.

Also in this session we came to the realization that we should be burning entire themes and not the individual entries under these. This altered the stakes of conflict significantly. (For the better, I think.)

Oh, we also had some discussion on how some text on "tragedy" and in particular the author's take on it with relation to the game would be good. The word is horribly abused by the media to mean generic victimization, and I presume Ben is talking about proper literary tragedy. The system clearly drives the protagonists down such a path.

[Ben Lehman]

Hi, guys.  Am I right in my assumption that this was Megrez's scene, and the other characters were there as secondaries?

Here are a couple of textual excerpts that might help you clear up your confusion.

Whenever one protagonist appears in a scene which focuses on another protagonist, the first protagonist's Heart retains guidance over her character.  Generally speaking, no situation can ever cause the Heart of a protagonist to lose guidance over the character's actions.

Example: Lord Arcturus rides out with Dame Beid to patrol the wastes. Despite the fact that Arcturus is a rival of Beid's (and thus listed in the Mistaken's section of her Cosmos), he is still guided by his own Heart and not the Mistaken.

Example: Lady Corona Borealis has delved too deep into mystic lore, and been possessed by the demon Etzlitotec. While the demon controls her actions, her Heart retains guidance, and decides what the demon makes her do, taking advice and suggestions from the Mistaken.

and

If you are using another protagonist as part of a scene (or even if you
aren't), either side (of the conflict) can include them in their statements, but only with the permission of that protagonist's Heart.

Further, this might help clear up some of your trouble with "what can Moons do with respect to their characters?" and "Can the Heart or the Mistaken just take over the character?"

As such, if the Moon guides a character to take an action that the Heart or the Mistaken objects to, they can negate, oppose, or disregard that action as they see fit by simply using the it will not come to pass... key phrase (no roll is necessary).

To clarify, this is specifically relegated to negating, opposing, or disregarding their actions.  You can't just take over playing their characters.

Also in this session we came to the realization that we should be burning entire themes and not the individual entries under these. This altered the stakes of conflict significantly

Yes this is correct.

Ben, the rules seem like they're saying to make the roll right when whichever trigger is pulled. I like that, but our group came to the conclusion that we'd wait until the end of the scene for purposes of flow and continuity. Thoughts?

You should roll them as they come up, because more there can frequently be more than one in a single scene.  If you keep a running tally and roll them at the end of the scene, I don't mind, though.

As to the black and swollen testicles -- Uh, I imagine that that is best handled either via "you ask far too much" or via just going "hey, dude, that's not cool."  I was thinking about introducing a "No, no, no" key phrase that could be used by all the Moons and the opposing player to say "no, that's just stupid" but I didn't think it was necessary.

yrs--
--Ben

[Christopher Weeks]

Yeah Ben, that was Megrez' scene.

Scene 6

Duck frames this scene as Wezn's Mistaken.

And so it was that Lord Wezn left the banquet after the incarceration of his sister and headed for the local bar to quench his undying thirst.  On arrival he orders "frigid glacial...drink" but no matter how much he drinks, the thirst gnaws at him.  The bartender approaches and asks the Knight what troubles him, asserting that he can sense a sad heart.

Wezn contentiously asks the bartender who he is to ask about such and gets back that it's the barkeep's job to ease such pain.  At this Wezn scoffs, doubting the keep's ability to help.  The bartender moves on down the bar, refilling the drinks of other patrons.

The band strikes up the song that the imp(s) were singing (last week) in scene three, from Wezn's childhood.  Wezn, already troubled, is deeply annoyed.  He barges into their set, stopping them and ask where they learned it.  It was a special request, they answer and then a general argument ensues with Lord Wezn harshly slapping one of the musicians.  The verbal ferocity of the encounter escalates with one of the non-slapped musicians (I think) yelling that maybe what the people are saying is true -- that the Knights are a useless organization whose time has passed.  Wezn plunges a dagger through the incautious artist's heart, killing him on the spot.  

<Larry and I agreed that this earned an experience roll and Aaron got an advance, taking "Idea: Mean Drunk" as his new aspect.  Sweet!  It was a bit tricky figuring out which theme that should go in and what kind of aspect it would be.  Aaron was leaning toward a relationship but I mentioned and then, I think, Larry advocated for making it an idea.>

I think it was previously established that there was an old drunk Knight at the bar.

With a gesture, the Bartender sends Sir Jhaba over to confront Wezn and the old Knight challenges Wezn. <my notation enters conflict mode at this point but I'm not sure it should have for another couple statements>
...Wezn tries to calm Jhaba, "brother my quarrel is not with you.  Di you hear him slander our order?"
......Jhaba agrees that the Knights time has gone.
.........<Aaron said something about Jhaba's attitude, but my notes are lacking.>
............And furthermore Jhaba certainly knows that the knights are for protecting the people, not killing them.  <Duck exhausts the Mistaken side of Wezn's Office Theme.>
...............And so it came to pass.  Lord Wezn sheathes his sword, is reminded of his thirst and agrees that he was wrong.  He turns to leave in disgrace.

<Duck isn't done with Aaron though!  We spent some time talking about Revenge of the Sith and the earlier SW movies before starting to play.  Duck even commented on Lucas' severed hand fetish...hmmm>  Jhaba attacks Wezn with his back turned and slices his hand off.
...You ask far too much. <Aaron exhausts his Starlight Sword aspect.>
......Only two fingers are severed.
.........But only if they're the last two.
............And so it came to pass.

Wezn is horrified and angry, accusing "you have shed the blood of one of your brothers!"  Wezn then weeps.

Jhaba responds by realizing what he's done and breaking down.  He thrusts his sword into his own gut, killing himself.
...But only if while this is taking place, Wezn sees the barkeep looking on with demonic glee.
......And so it came to pass.

Wezn then accuses the bartender of ordering the song that started all this.  The bartender denies it and points out the window into the bright snow where Wezn sees two impish young women smiling and dancing with his severed fingers.  They vanish in a puff of smoke.

And so it was.

[Christopher Weeks]

This is a long one.  We noticed that the scenes between Larry and I are much longer on average than the scenes between Duck and Aaron.  I wonder if we should shuffle seating and see how that affects things.

This scene is framed by Larry for Lord Arcturus.

Scene 7
And so it was that Lord Arcturus was leader of an incursion into the Crucible of Black Ice, to destroy Alcor.  This was a great and hazardous journey...which claimed many of the Knights.

< I wedged that last bit into Larry's opening narrative and he was like "yeah, OK, I never specified how many there were, so there can still be lots left."  Which points out that my input wasn't that great.  It provides tone, but not much effect.  I think we're learning how to say things that will matter, not just to our imaginations but so that they're backed up by the system.>

The expedition finally arrived at the Crucible's entrance and began the descent with torches lit to illuminate the way.  <Then I push back with>  The heat from the torches melt some of the ice above, causing a fresh freeze around the tunnel.  The Knights slip and slide a long, long way into the depths of the ice.  <It was interesting here that my original verbiage included "toward the Mistake" because I was envisioning the Crucible as being close.  Larry was fully ready to conflict about it but once we realized he was only objecting to a detail I considered trivial, I just backed it out of the narrative and we were happy.  Conflict avoided -- good or bad?  Dunno, but it worked.> The slide lasted so long that terror gave way to boredom when finally they were dumped roughly into a great black bowl of a chamber.  The blackness is thick and tangible and seems to drink the light given off by starlight swords.

Lord Arcturus lights a lantern.
...It shall not come to pass.  The lantern broke on the way down.  <I'm at a disadvantage and Larry rolls a success.>
......And so it was.

Larry narrates that in the new light, the Knights observe shadowy figures lurching about on the rim of the bowl above.  

They dump baskets of woven ice crystals over the edge, which come tumbling down toward the Knights.

As a moon, Aaron offers up that one of the Knights freaks out, screaming and dropping his sword.
...It shall not come to pass. -- Larry doesn't like it.  No roll is needed.

At this point, most of the rest of the scene is conflicts.  As the Mistaken, I start it off.

The baskets splinter and break during their tumble and as the alcohol inside spills out and onto the Knights, the entire crucible goes up in flame as a spark between sword and stone touch things off.
...You ask far too much  <The moons accept the exhaustion of Arcturs' Office.>
......The chemicals in the baskets seep out into the frigid air and put all the Knights to sleep.
.........But only if the Knights are captured unharmed.
............You ask far too much  < I also exhaust Arcturus' Office.>
...............The Knights awaken in captivity.
..................And furthermore they find that they are missing their starlight weapons.

< I think it was during this conflict, right here, that we broke for a sec to talk about the escalation from chains of but only if to chains of the more expensive and furthermore as a pretty nifty mechanic.  It's a kind of downward spiral that's really effective at building a sense of escalating stakes.  It's also good in that there can be at most four exchanges once you do make that escalation as the Themes will exhaust.  Something that I got to thinking about is that there's strategy in letting your opponent have something early on at the cost of a Theme exhaustion so that you're in a better position to drive them into a forced roll once theme are exhausted in one of these spirals.  At least, that's the kind of playing that Larry and I were getting into.  I think it makes less sense between Duck and Aaron.>

.....................And furthermore Arcturus finds that the rusty bars of their prison are breakable with his great strength. <Larry exhausts his Big trait>
........................And so it came to pass.
Lord Arcturus and both of the survivors from his company find themselves in a great and trackless maze of ice, deep beneath the surface with a disturbingly worn floor.
...You ask far too much <We had to discuss what aspect of the above narration, Larry was objecting too.  I didn't really know how to modify the statement until I found that he wanted more survivors.>
......With all three survivors...
.........But only if the Knights soon stumble upon Alcor's stronghold.
............And so it came to pass.

As they enter the stronghold, the minions of Alcor swarm over them, clawing and tearing at their flesh.  As their suffering increases, they can see their swords being played with by lesser demons for the ammusement of all.
...And furthermore in the chaos, Lord Arcturus stumbles across the room and comes to where is sword is, taking it up.  <Larry exhausts Starlight Sword.>
......And furthermore as you gratefully heft your sword, Alcor laughs deeply and expostulates "This gives me great pleasure...it is just how Antares died (gesturing to Arcturus's men who've been reduced to skeletal pulp) -- abandoned by her leader, my minions had an easy time of it...ha, ha, ha." < I exhaust Arcturus' relationship to Antares.>
.........And furthermore Sir Arcturus, enraged, shouts "you shall not tell lies about the lady I love; I shall survive to wed her" and he strikes down Alcor in a single smiting blow!  <He exhausts his Fate.>
............And furthermore you (Arcturus) realize that Alcor was right.  There is no Antares to return to, even if you will live to see her body again. < I exhaust his Demon Lore>
...............It shall not come to pass  <You've got to give Larry credit for perseverance, but his disadvantaged die roll fails and it does, in fact, come to pass...>

The minions of the slain Alcor are busy sucking the marrow from the bones of Arcturus' companions, allowing him to escape.

We did experience at the end of the scene this time.  The moons assigned Larry/Arcturus an experience roll for abandoning his companions which resulted in an advance and Larry took Betrayal of The People as his new aspect.  The other experience roll, for the failed die roll at the end, resulted in a Theme refresh.

And so it was...

[Larry L.]

I narrated Sir Jabbah into existence in Scene 6. The idea was that the demonic barkeep had kept serving the old knight long past the point where he should have cut him off, to further his ruin. I role-played his drunkeness as indeterminately Scottish/hillbilly.

Scene 7 was the Polaris equivalent of a dungeon crawl! What I thought was interesting about this scene is the amount of time advanced by each statement. Previously, each statement made in conflict has been sort of the equivalent of a combat round. Here, hours of adventuring passed with only a few sentences.

My observation is that Chris and I are more into narrating blatantly antagonistic stuff to push things into the conflict system, whereas Aaron and Duck are more subtle during free narration so statements don't quite set off a hostile reaction.

[Kesher]

It's really worth noting that there was this whole escalating tension thing talking about the narration and the outcome and the crappy probability and then this huge release.  We were all highly invested.  You know, a one in six isn't that uncommon, but it sure seemed remote when we were all thinking about it.  Aaron noted that this was a display that randomness really does create suspense.)

This was a really wonderful thing.  I can only think of one or two other times where I've felt that much tension around a die roll!  And it's not just the "randomness" aspect, either; it's randomness connected to conflict resolution, and in this case con res Polaris style.  

Randomness with Task res rarely creates tension, except when it's a do-or-die situation.  In this case, that last attempt at a "task" creates a de facto resolution of a larger "conflict" (does my character live or die)  E.g.: Once while playing All Flesh Must Be Eaten, in a scene where a character slipped and fell from the ladder in an elevator shaft, he had a 5% chance of being caught by another character below him; if that player failed the roll, the first character would be eaten by the zombies congregating on the stalled elevator car below.  The tension was thick because the chance of success was small and the resolution of the entire conflict (i.e., the char's life) was at stake, masquerading as a single task (i.e., do I grab the falling guy or not) roll.  The roll was successful and we all erupted in disbelief.

In Polaris, however, "tasks" aren't even a possiblility.  You're always initiating whole coflicts by giving them a beginning, a middle and an end.  The opposing player then has to decide just how much they're willing to risk in order to change the outcome.   Therefore, something like the above conflict happening, where a big change in our collective-player understanding of the order of things suddenly appears possible because of a small chance of randomized success coupled with one player's choice to accept that small chance creates true tension.

This is different than, say, con res in Otherkind, where every resolution includes some randomness (rolling of dice); the die roll in Polaris brings in measures of both unexpectedness (because you can never be sure when another player is going to chance it) and desperation (where a player is forced to roll because they've exhausted every other option, as Larry did in the Lair of Alcor scene.)

It'll be interesing to see if this changes with the growth of char experience; Lord Wezn is already down to a 2 Zeal, which makes me much more likely to succeed at a It shall not come to pass roll if I'm at a Disadvantage...

Wezn is horrified and angry, accusing "you have shed the blood of one of your brothers!"  Wezn then weeps.

Jhaba responds by realizing what he's done and breaking down.  He thrusts his sword into his own gut, killing himself.
...But only if while this is taking place, Wezn sees the barkeep looking on with demonic glee.
......And so it came to pass.

Immediately as this scene ended, I realized I'd made a tactical error: My "But only if..." didn't stop Jhaba from killing himself; in fact I wasn't trying to.  I should have just let Duck's statement stand, no conflict, and then immediately narrated that Wezn saw the barkeep "looking on in demonic glee."  There would've been a better chance that Duck would've contested it as a statement from me rather then a concession he didn't really care about (and so let pass.)  I guess I'm a slow study, but seems to me it puts you at an immediate disadvantage when you refute a statement.

It seems to me that, in order of forcing others to refute statements the most, we're running Duck/Chris/Larry/Me...

[Christopher Weeks]

A few things.  

As per Larry's note, all the places that I typed Jhaba, I should have typed Jabbah.

Aaron, the ordered list of propensity to force refutation implies something about the people listed.  I wonder if it has more to do with the people across the table from them?  Particularly in the case of placing you last in the list.  Duck seems willing to accept almost all input from you and just bend like the willow.

Ben, if I understand things, we have one more Polaris session scheduled during your playtest window.  What kind of info should we be looking to provide you?  I mean, what would be more helpful than what we're doing?

Chris

[Ben Lehman]

Ben, if I understand things, we have one more Polaris session scheduled during your playtest window.  What kind of info should we be looking to provide you?  I mean, what would be more helpful than what we're doing?

You guys have been enormously helpful so far.  The final draft is going to be a lot more clear about the role of the Moons and what sorts of statements can and cannot be made when.

I'm particularly interested in how the Veteran transition plays out, if you get that far.  Also, of course, the effects on conflict when "It shall not come to pass" has better odds.  Other than that -- what you are doing is so enormously helpful that I have trouble thinking of anything additional to ask.

One note -- please do not change up your seating.  The game is not intended to have that sort of shift go on.  I think it will probably stress the game a lot, to no good end.

yrs--
--Ben

[Larry L.]

It occurs to me that we had agreed before playing that we would be using the fast advancement rule so our knights would be veterans in three sessions, but I don't think we've actually been using that rule. Maybe we should advance our knights to veteran before the next run.

[Ben Lehman]

I was going to ask this after you finished writing up all the scenes, but:
What do the character sheets look like these days, anyway?  What are the Zeal scores, the new aspects, the changed aspects, and what got added and moved in the Cosmos?

yrs--
--Ben

[Larry L.]

SCENE 8

And so it was...
If I recall correctly, narration proceeds collaboratively between Aaron and Duck as usual. Aaron frames the scene. It is autumn and (Duck's) Sargus, having been separated from his troops, sees a shape in the ice. It looks familiar... it is what remains of Dabin, who has been away searching for Octens. A trail of blood and guts leads over the rise. Sargus draws his sword and follows the trail. Chris, as Full Moon (where Dabin resides in Sargus' cosmos), interrupts, "But he's not dead!" and it's accepted into the narrative.

As Sargus kneels to inspect his comrade, the ground erupts, and (Aaron narrates) demons emere and pummel Sargus into unconsciousness.
You ask far too much. (Gift: Starlight Sword)
Aaron offers: Demons burst forth, as their bodies soldify they take on the appearance of charred and smoking wood, with faces becoming familiar. His lost father's face! The faces speak with his voice in tandem, "You have failed to protect another that you love!"
Duck takes the revised narration.
And so it came to pass.
Duck has the Heart take up Dabin's sword and cut off the heads of the demons in a whirlwind flurry. Aaron replies that there are four heads, and as they chunk through ice in blood, they shimmer and change to the face of Lord Megrez, laughing and laughing and laughing. Duck states that the only way to kill them is through the brain, and so Sargus does so in a whirlwind motion.
Sargus sees his friend gasp again, and tries to ease his suffering. (through consolation, not mercykilling or anything). Aaron states that the end is clearly coming for Dabin. Between spouts of blood he utters, "Why... did... you... not... help... meee..." Duck repiles that Sargus feels grief at Dabin's passing, but at least he knows that it was the work of demons.
And so it was.

At this point I assumed we'd wrap up, so I was about to blow out the candle and say"But that was all..." but everyone expressed a willingness to game on, so we went another round.

[Larry L.]

SCENE 9

And so it was...

Duck narrates a scene for Lord Wezn -- Wezn wakes up from yet another drunken night. He hears a knock at his door. It's Alderamin the frostmason, who says, "Come quickly." It seems there's a problem with the wall. Lord Wezn grabs his sword and follows.

Duck says that as Wezn approaches the wall, there is a crowd gathered. The ice bricks have sprouted flora and fauna. (peaches! and chipmunks!) People are excited. It's clearly not natural.

Aaron says, "What is this corruption that has stained the purity of my wall?! Have you ever seen this happen before?"

I play a random man, "No, my lord."

Aaron, "This must be purged from the wall!"

Chris plays a random woman, "But my lord, it's so beautiful!"

Duck states that a child presents a peach with a bite taken from it. Juices run from the child's mouth. The child is levitating six inches off the ground.
Aaron looks over the crib sheet for conflict choices a bit, stumped.

You ask far too much (Office: Builder of the Wall)

Some kibbitzing goes on about this; the moons approve of this use.
Duck revises, a beautiful young woman holds out a peach, and says "You should try it, it's good!"

But only if Wezn notices a worm visible at the bite.

And so it came to pass.

Aaron/Wezn says to the woman, "You best be careful what you eat, appearances can be..."

There is a gasp from the crowd. For, as Duck explains, she was an old lady a moment ago. The crowd converges on the wall and starts eating the peaches.

(Chris/woman, "It is the wall of regrowth!")

Aaron starts a conflict
But only if they began to fight for the choicest peaches.

And so it came to pass

Chris/woman, "My grandma's sick, I need that peach!"

Larry/man,"Mine! Mine! All mine!"

Duck,"Mine! Mine! All mine!"

Aaron states that Wezn rushes for containers with which to heave water onto the vines. The plants whither and die in the people's hands. Duck retorts
And furthermore (Ability: Architect) the wall is ruined by the water, leaving the plants frozen within.

And furthermore (Ability: Demon lore) the purifying water drives the madness from the people, who weep upon realization they have been tricked.

It shall not come to pass, finishes Duck.

Since Office was invoked in the last conflict (we doing this right?) Aaron can only fail on a 5 or a 6. He rolls a six!

Duck happily continues instead that the people angrily turn to Wezn. They start muttering about how he has killed musicians. (Prev. scene) Chris joins in with the mob. (I'm noticing here that his women's voices sound suspiciously like the "old crone" voice in Monty Python's.)

Aaron angrily retorts to the masses, "What do you know of demons? You stare at the sun as if it was your lover! I have fought demons! I am a knight!" Duck/the mob cry, "The sun will melt down your stupid wall!"
Aaron states that Wezn repairs the wall, and the people eventually wander away. Duck affirms with It shall come to pass. (I'm noticing Duck and Aaron have a tendancy to use such when not engaged in a conflict.)
Duck gleefully tacks on an epilogue that as Wezn and the frostmason chip at the wall, their rhythm falls into the tempo for "the song" that has been in all Wezn's scenes.

And so it was.

Wezn gets an experience roll, and gains an advance.

It seems the midnight oil has run lower than previously anticipated, so we call it a night.

But that was all long ago, and now there are none who remember it. I blow out the candle.

Chris likes to point out that he remembers it, what am I talking about?

[Larry L.]

I think Aaron has the character sheets, so he'd have to be bothered to report on changes to the cosmos. (cosmoi?)

[Ben Lehman]

Chris likes to point out that he remembers it, what am I talking about?

Chris is totally right.

yrs--
--Ben